


King's Gambit

by Gray_Days



Series: Children of Pallas [8]
Category: DCU, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Genre: ...in SPACE!!, Earth-3, Episode: JLU s03e12 Alive!, Lex Luthor is Jean-Luc Picard with an eyepatch, M/M, Mirror Universe, Pulp Science Fiction, Rational Fiction, Sinestro’s tragic backstory, lord of order Volthoom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 01:30:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18436232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Days/pseuds/Gray_Days
Summary: “I feel no compunction in informing you, Lex, that if you are lost, then so too is this war. The Crime Syndicate and Volthoom will move forward unopposed, and all that you care about protecting in this universe willfall.”Sinestro glanced sidelong at Lex and sighed. “And you’re most likely concussed, so none of this will sink in enough to change a thing.”





	King's Gambit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one hundred percent [Kieron_oDuibhir’s](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kieron_ODuibhir) fault.
> 
> Being that the mirror world is better than our own in many respects, gender-neutral pronouns are in common use there and would be applied to aliens by default. I am told that Sinestro appears to identify with a familial role equivalent to a father, so he keeps masculine pronouns here.

“Good news,” said Sinestro as he pulled away. “You’ll probably keep the eye.”

Lex didn’t remember anything happening to his eye. He couldn’t remember why he’d just been unconscious, in fact. “What happened?” he asked groggily.

Sinestro sat back on his heels with a sigh of exasperation. “What happened? What happened is that you tried to sacrifice yourself, _as usual,_ to save the ship. Despite, may I add, the fact that you are an irreplaceable living organism, and a Qwardian interceptor is _not.”_

Oh. Lex remembered now. It was very different to know intellectually about explosive decompression and experience it firsthand. He far preferred the former. “Clearly I _wasn't_ trying to sacrifice myself, since I succeeded. Your ring is a marvel, my friend, but it’s not capable of translight travel.” The pain was becoming more distinct now, anchoring itself in various parts of his body rather than an undifferentiated pulsing ache, culminating in a searing agony on one side of his head. He brought a hand up to his skull to examine the damage.

Sinestro grabbed his wrist before he could make contact. _“Don’t_ touch it. I said you’ll _probably_ keep the eye — it’s not a sure thing. I did the best I could with the ring’s database on your species, but I can’t promise a positive outcome if you agitate it.” His lips curved into a thin, humorless smile. “Just keep worrying about worst-case scenarios. That should do the trick.”

Lex returned the smile wanly; then it faded. “Is everyone else all right?”

Now that Lex was no longer resisting Sinestro’s grasp, he released him and stood, pacing along the remains of the aft corridor. “Yes,” he replied with evident reluctance. “Tala and I were able to hold the breach long enough for the nanites to incorporate your repairs, and fortunately the brig’s shielding was strong enough to withstand the explosion. Thanks to you, we’re not dead in the water, but we’ll need to make it to the nearest safe spaceport unless you want to commandeer _another_ warship.”

“You don’t seem happy about that,” Lex observed. Sinestro’s shoulders were tight, hands clasped behind his back in what would be a white-knuckled grip for a human as he strode sharply past where Lex lay propped against the bulkhead.

“No,” exploded Sinestro, turning to him. “I’m not. Because I came to _you_ for help, Lex Luthor, and without your genius and tactical skill our prospects against Volthoom become far more grim. And because things worked out _this_ time, you’ll simply take that as proof — yet again — that you can throw yourself into danger like a common foot soldier without repercussion!”

“Sinestro,” said Lex after a moment, soft and strained, “you know I can’t think like that. I can’t _let_ myself think like that.”

“I am aware of your belief in that regard,” Sinestro replied bitterly, conjuring a stretcher and levitating Lex onto it so he could proceed in the direction of the medbay. “And yet you _will not win_ this war against the Syndicate if you persist in viewing yourself as expendable. Earth has a game of strategy, does it not, where the object is to prevent the commander’s destruction at all cost? I feel no compunction in informing you, Lex, that if you are lost, then so too is this war. The Crime Syndicate and Volthoom will move forward unopposed, and all that you care about protecting in this universe will _fall.”_ He glanced sidelong at Lex and sighed again. “And you’re most likely concussed, so none of this will sink in enough to change a thing.”

That stung. “I resent that,” Lex said.

A snort of laughter. “You aren’t offended when I call you a fool, but insulting your intelligence is beyond the pale. Typical.” As Sinestro laid his palm on the hacked biometric scanner at the threshold to the medbay and the forcefield shielding it shimmered into nothingness, he added in a more subdued tone, “I’m serious, Lex. I lost a spouse and child to Volthoom because I was too afraid of the effects my actions might have on others, rather than the consequences of refusing to act.”

“I’m sorry,” Lex said as Sinestro transferred him to a medical pod and began the scanning process.

“I know.”

Lex lay in silence as the medscans ran. Sinestro didn’t share the results, nor was the datascreen angled in a way that Lex could see; the itch of _not knowing_ what his condition was was becoming unbearable.

As the pain in his body finally began to drain away to be replaced with the cool numbness of healing nanotech, Lex said, “Sinestro.”

Sinestro looked up. “Yes, my friend?”

Sinestro didn’t express emotions in a way humans could easily parse, but his choice of words was meaningful in itself. “I understand your point of view, and I am truly sorry for what you’ve gone through. But for you, the state of your emotions has a direct bearing on your reality. For me, the only effect of mine is how they impact my actions. And if I allow myself to treat others as disposable while holding myself out of harm’s way, I…” Lex hesitated, uncharacteristically bereft of the words he needed, the _right_ ones. Perhaps Sinestro was right about him being concussed. “I’m afraid of how far I could convince myself to go in the name of the greater good. If I ask others to risk their lives, it must be because life is _worth_ risking in pursuit of that goal. If I don’t allow myself to take that risk, that means _I’m_ too afraid to act, and I can’t face the consequences of that.”

Sinestro said nothing for a few moments as he read over the medscan results and entered several commands, then replied in a careful, even tone, “I appreciate your willingness to explain yourself to me.” He pinned Lex with a golden glare. “I still expect you _never_ to leap into the vacuum of space without any fallback plan again, and if you survive such a foolhardy decision a second time, I may kill you myself. Is that understood?”

Lex offered him a lightheaded grin. “Do I at least get credit for figuring out how to repair a quantum engine on the fly?”

Sinestro hissed a breath between his teeth. “I have no idea how you thought you could derive an entire field of physics beyond anything your species has discovered in under four minutes.”

Lex shrugged, and winced as something ground audibly between his collarbone and shoulder. “Desperation?”

A sharp, narrow smile of acknowledgement. “To be sure.” He stepped away from the datascreen and laid his hand over Lex’s, lightly enough not to exacerbate any injuries that Lex couldn’t currently feel. “In that regard, any further ideas on how to track down Brightseid, genius?”

“I still think our best bet is at the heart of Volthoom’s empire.” Adrenaline fatigue and the impact of his injuries were beginning to catch up with Lex now; it was suddenly hard to keep up a train of thought or, in fact, keep his intact eye open. He tried not to think what he might look like after minutes of exposure to the vacuum of space and an explosion powerful enough to tear through Qwardian shielding. Several of the other medpods had been filled when Sinestro brought him in, blocked from hearing by the oblate privacy forcefields surrounding them, and he’d seen at least two other members of the Justice League come in with more injured while the scans were running. It was hard not to focus on the likely casualties, even if no one had died. “Wherever death and pain appear, Brightseid follows, and there are credible accounts placing xem in the Krypton system in the wake of the planet’s destruction; it makes sense that xe would be attracted to the highest density of misery in the galaxy. Our primary difficulty is intercepting Brightseid without being noticed ourselves. We may have to borrow this ship’s engineering crew to transfer its shield emitters to another craft if this one can’t be repaired.”

“And you believe you can indeed find a way to intercept Brightseid?”

Lex grinned again. “I already found God once in college; how hard can it be a second time?”

Sinestro rolled his eyes for Lex’s benefit. “Are you sure you don’t want to retrofit another ship all by yourself, as well?”

Lex closed his good eye. “Let’s say that I occasionally agree with your advice, my dear.”

He realised belatedly what he’d said and glanced up sharply. Sinestro was staring at him, hard-faced and inscrutable. “I’m—” Lex began.

“Lip-to-lip contact is a gesture of affection in your species, is it not?” Sinestro interrupted.

Lex’s forehead creased, with an accompanying echo of pain along the left side of his face. “In some cultures.”

Sinestro leaned over the medpod and carefully, considerately brushed his lips against Lex’s own. Lex forgot to breathe for a moment. The scent of the alien’s breath reminded him in some indescribable way of mace, spicy-sweet.

Sinestro pulled back slightly, still leaning over as he placed his hand atop Lex’s again. “You are the last good thing I have left in this universe, Lex. Of all the deaths I fear, of all the possibilities that haunt me, it is your death that I fear the most. Please keep that in mind when you decide to sacrifice yourself.”

“I will,” Lex promised. And it _was_ a promise: taking root in his chest like wisteria, twining and thickening until he collapsed into it. Another to add to his list. “I can’t honestly tell you that I won’t sacrifice myself if need be, but I will keep that in mind.”

“That’s all I can ask.” Sinestro’s phrasing didn’t escape Lex as he straightened. “I need to map out our route from here. Rest. Let someone else take command for a change.”

“Only for a little while,” Lex agreed as his eye involuntarily began to close again.

“Why would I expect anything different,” muttered Sinestro as he left Lex’s side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brightseid is also Kieron’s fault. (I suspect that in this universe, Brightseid seeks to bring order to the universe by discovering the Life Equation to end entropy. This does not necessarily entail changing the fact that xe psychically feeds on entropy – merely that xir response to it is to study the nature of life and death, and ultimately bring about xir own end.)
> 
> I feed on comments and constructive criticism and convert them into more writing. If you enjoyed this fic, please check out [my other work in this fandom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Days/works?fandom_id=390)!


End file.
